A recent video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows Msta-S howitzers firing precision-guided shells. While the technology is hardly new, it has been less common in the Russian army compared to standard shells used en masse — which still holds a pride of place in Russian doctrine.... Read more

On June 13, 1898, the cruiser USS Vesuvius crept within one mile of the Cuban coastline and began launching explosives from her monstrous compressed-air cannons — quietly, as far as the Spanish soldiers ashore in their fort knew until the shells landed. The nighttime shore bombardment targeting Santiago was... Read more

Namibia’s small army is in trouble. In February 2018, the army sent at least 1,000 of its soldiers home, with the initial reason given that the government had run out of money to feed them and to pay for the water and electricity for seven military bases. On Feb.... Read more

This is part two of a two-part series. Read part one. On Feb. 22, 1942, Soviet Maj. Gen. A.F. Levashev was sitting inside a TB-3 bomber as it carried the Fourth Airborne Corps’ senior officers to their landing zone — part of a major operation to relieve the Eighth... Read more

This article is part one of a two-part series. The Soviet Union was a pioneer in airborne warfare in the years before World War II — the first conflict to see widespread use of paratroopers. And in the USSR, this development was part of an intense period of post-revolutionary... Read more

Hunting ballistic-missile launchers would be one of the U.S. military’s most important tasks were hostilities on the Korean peninsula to erupt. Kim Jong Un’s arsenal could cause immense damage to South Korean cities, air bases and American and South Korean troops. But tracking the launchers from the air and... Read more

In June 1940, the 581-foot-long French light cruiser Émile Bertin sat docked in Halifax, when back in Europe, French officers gathered in the late Ferdinand Foch’s railway car at Compiègne to sign the humiliating armistice with Nazi Germany — sealing continental France’s subordination to German hegemony for a following... Read more

In 1940, the United Kingdom went to war with the Axis in North Africa and quickly encountered an unnerving tactical problem. The nature of warfare in the flat, open desert inevitably favored tanks, which could easily outrun the range of supporting artillery that could not move unless towed. Limbering... Read more

In March 1945, the rapidly advancing U.S. Army’s 9th Armored Division — to its surprise — found itself at Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagan; one of the two surviving bridges into the heart of Germany. The bridge was a considerable prize and its capture would shorten the... Read more

Finland’s tiny navy will face a crisis in the mid-2020s as half its surface combat fleet — four of eight missile boats in total — retires. To prevent this crisis, the navy is upgrading is planning to build four corvettes which are larger than anything currently in the fleet,... Read more